University of South Carolina Libraries
^ raSTOD SEMI-WEEKLY. l. m. grist & sons, publishers. J % Jiamiig IJerosgaper: <$or the grcimotioit of the jJotificat, fecial, Agricultural, and <Eommei;ciat Interests of the ?outh.. { mJn'olecopt!^ri nckntsa!ice" established 1855. YQRKVILLE, S. P., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1898. NO. 97. LOST Mil By ANNA KATI Copyright, 1897, by Anna K. Rob Its. Synopsis of Previous Installments. In order that new readers of The Enquirer may begin with the following installment of this story, and understand it just the same as though they had read it all from the beginning, wo ub Ki,c .. synopsis of that portion of it which has already been published: Amelia Butterworth, who has done clever detective work, is called upon by Mr. Gryce, a professional detective, to take up an interesting case. He tells her that in a certain village several persons have suddenly disappeared. In this place lives a family of the name of Knollys, the children of a former friend of Miss Butterworth. Mr. Gryce desires Miss Butterworth to enter this family fordetective work. Miss Butterworth goes to visit the Knollys' home, finding there Misses Lucetta and Loreen Knollys and their brother William. She dines with the family and is taken to her room. She remains awake during the night, and, hearing strange noises, goes into the ball and calls Lucetta, who gives unsatisfactory reasons for the disturbance. Mr. Trohm, a neighbor visits the Knollys. Lucetta is terrified at seeing him and faints. Miss Butterworth receives a letter from Mr. Gryce telling her that if she is in danger to blow upon a whistle be sends her. An old crone called Mother Jane appears. Miss Butterworth gives her a quarter, whereupon Mother Jane repeats a curious combination of numbers. Miss Butterworth leaves the bouse and hears of a young girl formerly leaving the Kuollys bouse in a carriage and being married before her mother could overtake her. Siuce then a phantom carriage is said to go through Lost Man's lane at midnight, suggesting that the carriage may carry away the persons mysteriously disappearing. Mr. Trohm drives Miss Butterworth in his wagon. Returning to the house she witnesses a parting between Lucetta and a lover, whose request for an answer to his suit Lucetta is endeavoring to put otf. He leaves without getting a favorable reply. Miss Butterworth gets from Loreen the key to a chamber which she has beard is haunted. #In visiting it she finds her way into William's sanctum and discovers that he is a vivisectionist. CHAPTER XVm. THE SECOND NIGHT. I cannot say that I looked forward to the night with any very cheerful anticipations. The locksmith having failed to keep his appointment, I was likely to have no more protection against intru fsion than 1 bad bad tbe nigbt before, and wbile 1 cannot say tbat I especially feared any unwelcome entrance into my apartment I would bave gone to my rest with a greater sense of satisfaction if a key bad been in tbe lock and tbat key had been turned by my own hand on my own side of tbe door. Tbe atmosphere of gloom which settled down over the household after the evening meal seemed like tbe warning note of something strange and evil awaiting us. So marked was this tbat many in my situation would have further disturbed these girls by some illusion to the fact. But tbat was not the ?. role I bad set myself to play at this orisis. I remembered what Mr. Gryce bad said about winning their confidence, and though tbe turmoil evident in Lucetta's mind and tbe distraction visible even in tbe careful Miss Knollys led me to expect a culmination < f some kind before the night was over 1 not only bid my recognition of this fact, but succeeded in sufficiently impressing them with thecoutentment which my own petty employments afforded me (I am never idle even in other persons' houses) or them ~? ?" thoif ol_ W spill c mo tuu utuaoouicuv vi vuvm m* teruute aud forced visits which in their present mood and mine promised little in the way of increased knowledge of their purposes and much in the way of distraction and the loss of that nerve upon which I calculated for a successful issue out of the possible difficulties of this night Had I been like most women I would have sounded three premonitory notes upon my whistle before blowing out my candle, but while I am not lacking, I hope, in many of the finer feminine qualities which link me to my sex I have but few of its weaknesses and none of its instinctive reliance upon others which leads it so often to neglect its own resources. Till I saw good reason to summon the police 1 should not summon them, a premature alarm being in their eyes, as I knew from my many talks with Mr. Gryce, the one thing suggestive of a timid and inexperienced mind. Hannah had brought me a delicious cup of tea at 10, the influence of which was to make me very drowsy at 11, but ' I shook the weakness off and began my night's watch in a state of stern composure which 1 verily believe would have awakened Mr. Gryce's admiratiou had it been consonant with the proprieties for him to have seen it. Indeed the very seriousness of the occasion was such that I could not have trembled if I would, every nerve and faculty being strained to its utmost to make the most of every sound which might arise in the now silent and discreetly darkened house. The precaution which 1 took the night before of pushing my bed against the door of my room 1 omitted, being aux ious to find myself in a position to cross its threshold at the least alarm. That this would come I felt positive, for Hannah in leaving my room had taken pains to say, in unconscious imitation of what Miss Knollys had remarked the night before: "Don't let any queer sounds you may hear disturb you, Miss Butterworth. There's nothing to hurt you in this house; nothing at all." An admonition which I am sure that her young mistresses, after all that had passed between us this day, would not have allowed her to utter if they had been made acquainted with her intention. But though in a state of high expectation and listening, as I supposed, with every faculty alert, the sounds I apprehended delayed so long that I begun aft n m IARINE GREEN. er an hour or two unaccountably to nod in my chair, and before I knew it I was asleep, with the whistle in my hand and my feet pressed against the panels of the door I had set myself to guard. How deep that sleep was or how long 1 can only judge from the state of emo 1 ' ' * * J 1 tlOD 111 WHICH X luuiiu uiyoau. vyucji a suddenly woke. I was sitting there still, but my usually calm frame was in a violent tremble and I found it difficult to stir, much more to speak. Some one or something was at my door. An instant and my powerful nature would have asserted itself, but before this could happen?Hannah having con fesaed to me afterward that she had put a few harmless grains of morphine into my tea?the stealthy step drew nearer and 1 heard the quiet, almost noiseless, insertion of a key into the lock and the quick turn which made me a prisoner. This, with the indignation it caused, brought me quickly to myself. So the door had a bey after all, and this was the use it was reserved for. Rising quickly to my feet, I shouted out the names of Loreeu, Lucetta and William, but received no other response than the rapid withdrawal of feet down the corridor. Then I felt for the whistle, which had somehow slipped from my hand, but failed to find it in the darkness, nor when I went to search for the matches to relight the candle I had left standing on a table near by could I by any means succeed in lighting one, so that I found myself shut up in my room, with no means of communicating with the world J outsido and with no light to render the situation tolerable. This was having the tables turned upon me with a vengeance and in a way for which 1 could not ao count I could understand why they had locked me in the room and why they had not heeded my cry of indignation and appeal, but I could not comprehend how my whistle came to be gone nor why the matches which were plentiful enough in the safe refused one and all to perform their duty. On these points I must be satisfied before I proceeded to invent some way out of my difficulties. So, dropping on my knees by tho chair in which I had been sitting, I began a quiet search for the petty object upon which, nevertheless, hung not my safety perhaps, but all chances of success in an undertaking | which was every moment growing more i serious. I did not find it, but I did find! where it had gone. In the floor near the J door my hand encountered after awhile J a hole which had been covered up by a rug, which I distinctly remembered having pushed aside with my feet when 1 took my seat there. It was not large, but it was deep, so deep that my hand failed to reach to the bottom of it, and into this hole by 6ome freak of chance ?I have noticed in my short but eventful life that chauce, or rather let me call it Providence, for there can be no such thing as chance, frequently seems to lend itself to the cause we are fighting against?had slipped the 6mall whistle I had so indiscreetly taken into my hand. The mystery of the matches was less easy of solution; so I let it go after a moment of indecisive thought and bent my energies once again to listen, when suddenly and without the least warning there rose from somewhere in linnco o nnr crv u-ild nrtft nnfiiirf.hlv iuc UVUOW ( UV ff M?.v that I started up appalled, and for a moment could not tell whether this was some fearful dream I was laboring under or a still more fearful reality. A rushing of feet in the distance and an involuntary murmur of voices soon satisfied me, however, on this score, and drawing upon every energy I possessed again I listened for a renewal of the cry which was yet curdling my blood. But none came, and presently all was as still as if no sound had arisen to disturb the midnight, though every fiber in my body told me that the event I had feareti?the event of which I hardly dare mention the character even to myself?bad taken place, and that I, who was sent there to forestall it, was not only a prisoner in my room, but a prisoner through my own folly and my inordinate love of tea. TLe anger with which I contemplated this and the remorse I felt at the consequences which had befallen the innocent made me very wide awake indeed, and after an ineffectual effort to make my voice heard from the window and various other small attempts of which I am not proud enough to relate I called my usual philosophy to my aid and said that since all this had happened and I was shut up there and had to await events like any other weak and defenseless woman I might as well do it with calmness and in a way to win my own approval at least. The dupe of William and his sisters, I would not be the dupe of my own fears or even of my own regrets. The consequence was renewed equanimity and a gentle brooding over the one event of the day which brought no regret in its train. The ride with Mr. Trollm and the acquaintanceship which it had led to were topics upon which I could rest with great soothing effect through the weary hours stretching between me and daylight. Then of Mr. Trohm let me think as far as modesty would permit, since shame, trouble and horror lay in other directions into which my now vividly aroused thoughts might stray. Whether the almost deathly quiet into which the house had uow fallen or the comforting nature of my meditations held inexorably to the topic I bad chosen acted as a soporific upon me I cannot tell, but greatly as I dislike to admit it, feeling sure that you will expect to hear I kept myself awake all that night, I graduully and insensibly sank from great alertness to an easy listening to my own heart beats and from that to vague dreams in which beds of lilies and trellises covered with roses mingled strangely with narrow, winding staircases whose tops ended in the swaying branches of great trees, and 60 into qniet and a nothingness that were only broken into by a rap at my door and a cheerful: "Eight o'clock, ma'am. The young ladies are waiting." I bounded, literally bounded, from my chair. Such a summons, after sufth a nit?ht! What did it mean? I was sit ting half dressed in my chair before my door in a straightened and uncomfortable attitude, and therefore had not dreamed that I had been upon the watch all night, yet tho sunshine in the room, the cheery tones such as I had not heard even from this woman before, seemed to argue that my imagination had played me false and that no horrors had come to disturb my rest or render my waking distressing. Stretching out my hand toward the door, I was about to open it, when I bethought me. "Turn the key in the lock," said L "Somebody was careful enough of my safety to fasten me in last night." An exclamation of astonishment came from outside the door. "There is no key here, ma'am. The door is not locked. Shall I open it and come in?" I was about to say yes in my anxiety to talk to the woman, but remembering that nothing was to be gained as yet by letting them know to what an extent I had carried my suspicions I hastily disrobed and crept into the bed I had not pressed before that night. Pulling the coverings about me, I assumed a comfortable attitude and then cried: "Come in." The door immediately opened. "There, ma'am. What did I tell you? Locked?this door? Why, the key has been lost for months." "I cannot help it," I said, but with "THIS IS WILL little if any asperity, for it did not suit mo that she should see I was moved by any extraordinary feeling. "A key was put in that lock about midnight, and I was looked in. It was about the time that scream was given by some one in your own part of the house." "Scream?" Her brows took a fine pucker of perplexity. "Oh, that must have been Miss Lucetta." "Lucetta?" "Yes, ma'am; she had an attack, I believe. Poor Miss Lucetta 1 She often has attacks like that." Confounded, for the woman spoke so naturally that none but a suspicious nature like mine would think of suspecting her, 1 raised myself on my elbow and gave her an indignant look. "Yet," said 1, "you said just now that the young ladies were expecting me to breukfast." "Yes, and why not?" Her look was absolutely guileless. "Miss Lucetta sometimes keeps us up half the night, but she does not miss breakfast on that account. When the turn is over, she is as well as ever sho was. A fine young lady, Miss Lucetta. I'd lose my two hands for her any day." "She certainly is a remarkable girl," I 6aid, not, however, as dryly as I felt. "I can hardly believe I dreamed about the key. Let me feel of your pocket," I laughed. She, without the smallest hesitancy, pulled aside her apron. "I am 6orry you could think I would deceive you, ma'am, but Lor' me, ma'am, this is nothing to what some of our guests huve complained of?in the days, I mean, when we did have guests. I have known them to scream themselves and vow they saw white figures creeping up and down the halls?all nonsense, ma'am, but believed in by some folks. You don't look as if you believed in ghosts." "And I don't," I 6aid, "not a whit It would be a poor way to try to frighten me. How is Mr. wiuiam una morning?" "Oh, he's well and feeding the dogs, nia'aiu. What made you think of him?" "Politenoss, Hannah," I found myself forced to say. "He's the only ma. in the house. Why shouldn't I think of him?" She fingered her apron a minute and laughed. "1 didn't know you liked him. He's so rough, it isn't everybody who understands him," sho said. "Must ono understand a person to like him?" I queried good bumorediy. 1 w was beginning to think I might have be dreamed about that key. an "I don't know," she said, "I don't ce always understand Miss Lucetta, but I F< like her, like her through and through, ul ma'am, as I like this little finger." And ov holding up this member to my inspec- a tion she crossed the room for my water ly pitcher, which she proposed to fill with st< hot water. or I followed her closely with my eyes tli When she came back, I saw her eyes tb fUo Ir in flio flnnrina whirh bs ian uii vuu v* *m vmv mvw. ,,_.v_ she had not noticed in entering. th "Oh," she exclaimed, "what a tl? shame," her honest face coloring as she th drew tho rug back over the small black th gap. "I am sore, ma'am," she cried, en "yon most think very poor of us. But 1 bt assure you, ma'am, it's honest poverty, nothing but honest poverty, as makes dl them so neglectful," audwith an air as wl far removed from mystery as her frank, fn good natured manner seemed to be from ch falsehood, she slid from the room with ex a kind: an "Don't hurry, ma'am. It is Miss P11 Knollys' turn in the kitchen, and she de isn't as quick as Miss Lueetta." to "Humph," thought I, "supposing 1 cahad called in the police." tl< But by the time she had returned 00 with the water my doubts had awaken- ot^ ed again. She was not changed, though de I have no doubt she had told what I ?* had said below, but I was, for I remembered the matches and thought I saw a way of tripping her up in her self complacency Just as she was leaving me for the 11 second time I called her back. gr "What is the matter with your wi matches?" I asked. "I couldn't make an them light last night." lig With a wholly undisturbed counte- th nance she turned toward the bureau and m' took up the china trinket that held the hi few remaining matches I had not scraped sn on the piece of sandpaper I myself had st< fastened up alongside the door. A sheep- to is?n cry ox ciMuuy tit uuuu escujjeu uer. m be ? I^ \ i CO M ^ ^ j JAM'S DEN." , 001 " Why, these are old matches!" said se< she, show fug me the box in which a Pe half dozen or so burned matches stood to with their burned topsail turned down, ha ,,T 4-Uaoa from all ricrht; T'tTI SCI J. 111UU?1J1> liiCDD nuw u?* ? ? afraid we are a little short of matches." nil I did not like to tell her what I Lt thought, but it made me doubly anxious to join the young ladies at breakfast and ro< see for myself from their conduct and th: expression if I had been deceived by my toi own fears into taking for realities the I? phantasies of a nightmare or whether I Pe was correct in ascribing to fact that ep- th isode of the key with all the possibilities y? that lay behind it dr I did not let my anxiety, however, stand in tho way of a very manifest duty. Mr. Gryce had bid me carry the do whistle he had sent me constantly about ca my person, and I felt that he would have hn the right to reproach me if I left my to room without making some endeavor to wi recover this lost article. How to do this tic without aid or appliances of any kind was a problem. I knew where it was, an but I could not see it, much less reach an it. Besides, they were waiting for me, ni; and the whistle I must have. It occurred nil to me that 1 might lower into the hole an a lighted candle hung by a string. tic Nothing unnerves one so much as the th consciousness of being waited for, but the whistlo I must have, and that, too, lil by the simplest device possible. Look- co ing over my effects, I cl?ose out a hair- mi pin, a candle, two corset laces (Pardon of me. I am as modest as most of my sex, an but 1 am not squeamish. Corset laces to are strings, and as such I present them to to your notice. That you will regard to them in any other light is not to be av feared after this explanation) and?a th buttonhook, you will say, but, alas?for I a buttonhook would have been very use- tr ful in this emergency?I have not yet dr lonrvl Knnt nf mv an- Ctt lUiniUlClI LUU ULUii; tuvvvi isww j cestors, and I could only produce a small of article from my toilet service which sl< shall remain unmentioned, as I present- I' ly discarded it and turned my whole at- at tentiou to the other objects I have Bi named, a poor array, but out of them I de hoped to find the means of fishing up my lost whistle. m My intention was to lower first a m lighted candle into the hole by means of al a string titd about its middle, then to st: drop a line on the whistle thus discov- or ered and draw it up with the point of a ti< bent hairpin, which I fondly hoped I m could make do the service of a hook. To gt think was to try. The caudle was so< n rc down in the hole, and by. its light the ot mstie was easily seen, rue siring uuu mt hairpin went down next. I was ccessful in hooking the prize and proeded to pr.ll it tip with great care, or an instant I realized what a ridicons figure I was cutting, stooping er a bole in the floor on both knees, string in eacn nana, leaamg appareucto nowhere and I at work cantionsly Badying one and as carefully pulling i the other. Having hooked the whisb hand string over the first finger of e hand holding the candle, I may ive become too self conscious to notice e slight release of weight on the whisi hand. Whatever the reason, when e end of the string came in sight ere waB no whistle on it The charred id showed me that the candle had irned the cord, letting the whistle fall ain out of reach. Down went the cane again. It touched bottom, but no bistle was to be seen. After a long and nitless search, such as it was, I conaded to abandon my whistle fishing cursion. and rising from my cramped d undignified position 1 proceeded to ill up the candla To my surprise and light, 1 found the whistle firmly stuck the lower side of it. Some drops of ndle grease had fallen upon the whis3 where it lay. The candle coining in ntact with it, they adhered to eaoh ber, and I became indebted to accint and not acumen for the restoration the precious article. CHAPTER XIX. THE KNOT OF CRAPE. I was prepared to see a change when event into the dining room, but not so eat a one. The blinds, whioh were aliys half closed, were now wide open, d under the cheerful influence of the ;ht which was thus allowed to enter e table and all its appointments had a ch less dreary look than before. Bend the urn sat Miss Knollys, with a nie on ner lips, ana in me winaow 30d William, whistling, I am bonnd declare, bnt so softly and cheerily at I conld bnt acknowledge it was tter than bis nsnal rude jests or suli silences. Lucetta was not present of urse, bnt to my great astonishment e presently walked in with her hands 3en with sprays of morning glory, aich she flnng down in the center of e board. It was the first time I had an any attempt made by any of them lighten the somberness of their sur ndings, and it was also the first time iad seen the three together. I was more disconcerted by this simb show of improved spirits than 1 mid like to acknow ledge. In the first ace, they were natnral and not foroed, d, secondly, they were to all appearce unconscious. They were not marked enough to show lief and in Lncetta especially did not rve to hide the underlying melancholy a disappointed girl, yet it was not bat I expected from my supposed exrieuces of the night and led me to an er a little warily when, with a frank agh, Loreen exclaimed: "Soyen have lost your character as a actical woman, Miss Butterworth? muah tells me yon were the viotim a ghostly visit last night" "Hannah gossips unmercifully," was y cautions and somewhat peevish rey. "If I chose to dream that I was :ked into my room, by some very atative specter, 1 cannot see why she onld take the confession of my folly t of my month. I was going to relate a fact myself, with all the acoompani? ill lb U1 rubuiilg Btupo auu yy iiu auu [earthly cries which are expeoted by e listeners to a veritable ghost story, it now I have simply to defend myself )m a charge of credulity. It's too bad, iss Knollys, much too bad. I did not me to a haunted house for this." My munner rather than my words 2med to completely deceive them, irhaps it deceived myself, for I began feel a loss of the depression whioh d weighed upon me ever since that ream had rung in my ears at midght. It disappeared still further when icetta said: "If your ramblings through the old cms on this floor were the occasion of Is nightmare, you must be prep&red r a recurrence of the same tonight, for irn going to take you through the upr rooms myself this morning. Isn't at the programme, Loreen? Or have u changed your mind and planned a ive for Miss Butterworth?" "She shall do both," said Loreen. tfhen she is tired of tramping through sty chambers and examining the deyed remnants of old furniture whioh cumber them; William stands ready drive her over the hills, where she ill find views well worth her atten>n." "Thank you," said I. "It is a pleast prospect." But within I uttered ything but thanks; rather asked Fself if I was a fool, or was just being ide one, and decided almost without argument that the former supposim would meet with least denial from e world at large. TT ? Uoh/1 in q nuwuvtu, UC11C13 Uio UU1U *^4 M ?e mine, and though I was ready to nsider that an inflamed imagination ay often carry us beyond the bounds fact and even into the realm of fancy id misconception I yet was not ready give up my suspicions altogether or acknowledge that I had no foundation r the fear that something uncanny and pful had taken place under this roof e night before. The very naturalness observed in this hitherto restrained io might be the result of some great eum removed, and if that was the se? Ah, well, alertness is the motto the truly wise. It is when vigilance >eps that the enemy gains the victory, would not let myself be deceived even the cost of a little ridicula Amelia ntterworth was still awake, even unir a semblance of well laid suspicion. My footsteps were not dogged that oruing as they hitherto had been in y movements about the housa I was lowed to go and come and even to ray into the second long corridor withit any other let than my own discreon and good breeding. Lucetta joined e, to be sure, after awhile, but only as lide and companion. She took me into oms I forgot the next minute and into hers I rem?inl?er .to this day as Quaint uiciJLJvJi luio ui u pa DO t_>ci auu uiwa^o mteresting to me. We ransacked the house, yet after nil was over and I sat down to rest in my own room two formidable questions rose in my mind that I found it impossible to find satisfactory answers for. Why,- with so many more or less attractive bed chambers at their command, had they chosen to put me in this hole, where the very flooring was unsafe and the outlook the most dismal that could be imagined, and why in all our peregrinations in and out of rooms had we always passed one door without entering? She had said that it was William's?a sufficient explanation if true, and I have no doubt it was?but 4.1.~ ~i UUU UlJUJJgU U1 LUUUlCLiaiitO YT ltli VYiiltU she bad passed it and the sadden lightening of ber trend, so instinctive that she was totally unconscious of it, marked that door as one it would be my duty to enter if fate should yet give me the opportunity. That it was the one in communication with the flower parlor I felt satisfied, but in order to make assurance double sure I determined upon a tour through the shrubbery outside that I might compare the location of the window with the chipped blind with that of this room, which was, as well as 1 could calculate, the third room from the rear on that side. When, therefore, William called up to know if I was ready for my drive, 1 answered back that I was more tired than I expected and that I would be glad to exchange that pleasure for a visit to the stables. This, as 1 expected, caused considerable comment and some disturbance. They wanted me to repeat my experience of the day before and spend two if not more hours of the morning out of the house. But I did not mean to gratify them. Indeed I felt that my duty lay here and was so persistent in my wishes, or rather in my declaration of them, that all opposition had to give way, even in the stubborn William. "I thought you had a dread of dogs," was the final remark with which he endeavored to turn me aside from my purpose. "I have three in the barn and two in the stable, and they make a great fuss when I come around, I assure you." "Then they will have enough to do without noticing me," said I, with a brazen assumption or courage tnai would have astonished myself if I had had any real intention of invading a place so guarded. But I had not I no more meant to enter the stables than to jump off the house top, but it was necessary that I should start for them and make that start from the left wing of the house. How I managed the intractable William and led him as I did from bush to bush and shrub to shrub, up and down the length of that interminable facade of the left wing, would make an interesting story in itself. The curiosity I showed in plants, even such plants as had survived the neglect that had made a wilderness of this old time garden; the indifference which, contrary to all my habits, I persisted in manifesting to every inconvenience I encountered in the way of straightforward walking to any object 1 set my fancy upon examining; the knowledge 1 exhibited, and the interest which I took it for granted he felt in all I discovered and all I imparted to him wonld form the basis of a farce of no ordinary merit had it not had its birth in interests and intents bordering on the tragic, if not leading slowly up to it A row of bushes of various speoies ran along the wall and oovered in some instances the lower ledges of the first row of windows. Toward a certain shrub which I had observed growing near what I supposed to be the casement from whose blind I had chipped a small sliver I was slowly moving, and when I reached it nothing would restrain my enthusiasm or my evident desire to display my erudition. "This," said I, "is, without any doubt at all, & stunted but undoubtec specimen of that rare tree found seldom north of the thirtieth degree, the Magnolia grandiflora. 1 have never seen it but once before, and that was in the botanical gardens in Washington. Note its leaves. You have noted its flowers, smaller undoubtedly than they should be?but then you must acknowledge it has been in a measure neglected?are they not fine?" Here I pulled a branch down which interfered with my view of the window. There was no chip out of the blinds thus discovered. Seeing this, I let the branch go. "But the oddest feature of this tree and one with which you are perhaps not acquainted" (I wonder if anybody is?) "is that it will not grow within 20 feet of any plant which scatters pollen. See for yourself. This next shrub bears no flower" (I was moving along the wall) "nor this." I drew down a bransh as 1 spoke, caught sight of the mark I was looking for and let the branch spring back. 1 bad found the window I wanted. His grunts and groans during all this formed a running accompaniment which would have afforded me great secret amusement bad my purpose been less serious. As it was, I could pay but little attention to him, especially after 1 had stepped back far enough to take a glance at the window over the one I had just located as that of the flower parlor. It was, as I expected, the third one from the rear corner, but it was not this fact which gave me a thrill of feeling so strong that 1 have never had 1 J ? 1- tvirr nnnnnimitv li&ruur wum tu jjicdchv n'j v^. -v It was the knot of black crape with which the shutters were tied together. TO BE CONTINUED. t&T Many a man who is lo >ked up to by his neighbors never chopped a cord of wood in his life. He leaves it for his wife to do. VST I' is always heat to avoid controversy with two kinds of p? ople ; those who cannot understand you and those who will not. Never put off till tomorrow what you can get somebody to do for you today. mmm km Why Whites Will Not Tolerate Negro Domination. PACTS FORCEFULLY PRESENTED Designing White Men the Cause of All Trouble?How Matters Used to Be Managed in South Carolina. Senator McL&urln In New York Herald. It is difficult and well nigh impos stDie ror anyone to gauge tne aeptn and power of any issue or movement on race or religious prejudices. Fortunately, in this country we have been spared those terrible struggles brought on in other parts of the world by religious prejudices. But* we are not so fortunate on the race issue, for the condition of our country, particularly in the south, with its great Negro population placed alongside the white population, makes race differences inevitable. The people of the north, far removed from the centres of large Negro population, are able to view this race issue from a purely sentimental standpoint. It is to them simply a question of fine phrases, of declarations of the equality of all men under the law. But to the people of the south the question of race is not a mere matter of sentiment. It is a subject which enters into the very life and existence of our people. We see it before us every day; it is presented to us, not for argument and academic discussion, but for immediate practical solution. While academicians at remote points, secure in their own homes, secure in their property, secure in all those elementary rights which accompany Anglo-Saxon civilization, can theorize, we of the south are compelled to face an actual condition. As an eminent public mac said of another vital issue in American affairs, it is not a theory but a condition which confronts us. I suggest this because it seems natural and unavoidable that the states of the south, which are face to face with this terrible race conflict, must themselves meet it and solve it, and that the theoretical views of those standing afar off should not be cast against those who are struggling with a problem involving their very self-existence. NORTH CAROLINA'S EXPERIENCE. The race issue has been brought prominently to the front within recent days by conditions in North and South Carolina. In North Carolina theissue has grown out of the peculiar conditions existing in that state, where Negro domination has been brought about by a peculiar combination of political causes. For the last two years there has been complete Negro domination throughout that state, and, aside from the deeper questions as to domination by those lacking in education, in property and in all that goes to make men representative of the general social welfares, the whites were subjected to all manner of insults and official oppression. I have no doubt that the trouble in South Carolina was a direct result of the Negro domination in North Carolina, as we of South Carolina have fortunately been rid of Negro domination for many years. But our people are closely allied by blood and business with the people of North Carolina, and it is but natural that they should have felt a deep sympathy when the white men of North Carolina determined to throw off the evil of black rule. SOUTH CAROLINA IN "CARPET BAG" TIMES. From my personal experience while attorney general of South Carolina, I gained an insight into the real meaning of Negro rule. The people of the north have no idea of what this means as judged by actual experience. In the state of South Carolina we had eight years of Negro carpet bag government, during which the white men of the state, representing its intelligence, its education and its property, were sent to the rear, while the legis lative tlHUS OI me staie were iu iuo possession of a body of Negro legislators. What this body did is a matter of history with us, although I do not believe the people of the north appreciate the excesses which that Negro legislature and Negro government committed. By the forced issue of bonds the debt of the state was increased during this period of Negro rule from $3,000,000 to $21,000,000. One year the corrupt Negro and carpet bag officials of the state met in a back room of a bank and actually divided up among themselves all the money collected by taxation. It was simply a matter of personal distribution of public money among them. As attorney general following the period of Negro rule, I had to defend a suit that exposed one phase of this Negro rule. The black legislature bad passed an act to issue $1,500,000 of scrip, known as Blue Ridge scrip, to build a railroad. That scrip the Negro und carpet bag officials actually issued three limes over, and the triple issues were disposed ot in various money markets. For acts like these many of thp Negro officials were after ward prosecuted, convicted and sent to the peuiteutiary. But even in this there was little justice, as pardons by the Negro-made governor were as much a commercial commodity as cotton or wheat. TAXPAYERS OVERRIDDEN. It was such experiences as this that warned the people of North Carolina what was likely to follow if the baneful iufluence of Negro domination became firmly fixed upon their state. Already it had secured partial control of the state, and the most populous communities, the seats of education, wealth and business, were completely under the mastery of Negroes who CONTINUED ON FOURTH PAGE.